Inside Gitmo

I don’t normally do “in the mail” posts about books I haven’t read; since I have time to read very few of the books I get in the mail, reviews are sadly infrequent. So this is an exception: A couple of days ago I got a copy of Inside Gitmo by Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu.

The book, of course, could hardly be more timely, with closing the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay–someday–being one of the first acts of the new Obama administration. How ironic that, in the end, liberals’ biggest criticism of George Bush is that he was mean to terrorists! (Whereas Franklin Roosevelt, their hero, had German terrorists electrocuted.) Col. Cucullu’s book seeks to bring a new element to the debate over Gitmo: facts. From the book’s dust jacket:

Current treatment and oversight routines exceed the standards of any maximum-security prison in the world.

Despite what the public has heard, these are not innocent goatherds but dedicated jihadists whose overriding goal–as they themselves candidly say–is to kill Americans.

Ralph Peters writes:

Inside Gitmo provides the crucial element that’s been missing from the long partisan debate over the detention of terrorists at Guantanamo: facts. This fine, timely book shatters the politicized myth-making that has played into the hands of freedom’s enemies.

What always comes to mind when I think of Guantanamo Bay is the astonishing lengths the administration has gone to in order to show respect for Islam, including a rule that American soldiers can’t touch the detainees’ Korans.

I’ll have more to say if and when I find time to read the book, but in the meantime I would urge our readers to follow the link above, buy Inside Gitmo, and see for themselves.